Cleveland-Cliffs laid out why they believe they are a better choice to buy U.S. Steel, over Japanese company Nippon Steel.

This was during Tuesday’s earnings call. They maintained they had remedies to mitigate anti-trust regulatory risk, and preserve a competitive market environment. Plus, they had the backing of the United Steelworkers.

CEO Lourenco Goncalves said of the Nippon proposal, “Let’s talk turkey here. That management team and that board has one goal in mind. That goal is to break the back of the United Steelworkers. By breaking the back of United Steelworkers, break back of unionized labor in America. I am a big supporter of unionized labor, because it goes against bosses like Dave Burritt. These type of people need to go.”

He added, “We applaud the Biden administration for raising alarm bells on this proposed transaction.”

Before Christmas, U.S. Steel announced they have an agreement with Nippon to merge.

According to U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel is committed to honoring the Basic Labor Agreement between the company and USW.

They plan on releasing earnings information later this week.

U.S. Steel owns Minntac and Keetac. Cliffs owns Minorca, United Taconite, Northshore, and Hibtac.